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What is the WordPress Cache Folder?
The WordPress Cache Folder is the directory within your WordPress installation, where WordPress stores it’s “Cached files”. These are sql queries or html pages which have been generated by WordPress to make your website load faster.
So the WordPress Cache Folder stores those Cached files in order to make your WordPress site run faster. The WordPress admin panel makes use of those Cached files as well.
So, if you delete those Cached files, your WordPress blog will function slower as WordPress has to load those Cached files again. (Please note: The WordPress Cache Folder is different from the WordPress content folder.)
Using WordPress Cache plugin will also keep WordPress code clean and uncluttered, which makes it run even faster for WordPress to access its Cached files.
In fact, unless you are very familiar with Servers, PHP, SQL and coding in particular, it’s always best to stick with a great WordPress Cache Plugin for all your WordPress Caching needs.
The good news is that the majority of WordPress site speed and caching issues can either be solved with a simple installation of a Caching plugin, contacting the Caching plugin of your choice’s support or getting a CDN.
There’s little to no need ever to mess around with your WordPress Cache Folder.
Finally, in most cases when referring to the WordPress Cache Folder, it can also be referred to simply as the WordPress Cache.
In this post, we are going to go over some additional frequently asked questions that are related to the WordPress Cache Folder in order for you to get a better understanding of how caching works in WordPress and how to improve your WordPress site’s speed and performance.
NOTE: Before doing anything with your WordPress Cache or WordPress Cache Folder, ALWAYS have a BACKUP of your WEBSITE!
How does WordPress Caching work?
Caching starts when an update on an existing post or page happens on your site.
The very first visitor who visits and loads the post or page after it’s updated has to wait about four seconds before any of their results load completely.
Then, their first results are kept in a static version of the site and are stored for future reference.
When the next visitor searches for the same page it doesn’t take 4 seconds, but 2 seconds.
This is because the posts, pages or other contents didn’t have to be processed and collected to display the same result.
As more visitors to that same post of page the same process is repeated over and over again. This will go on until the content of that post or page is changed.
WordPress Caching, in other words, automates an easily repeatable process.
Where is the WordPress Cache stored?
The WordPress Cache can be found in the wp-content/cache folder.
How do I empty my WordPress Cache?
It’s easy to do a manual clean of your WordPress Cache by deleting the contents of the WordPress Cache folder located in the wp-content/cache folder.
However, this is not recommended for those who don’t know how to work with server terminology, especially delete files from the server. We recommend finding a plugin which will make this process easier and more effective.
There are a variety of WordPress plugins that can be used to clear your cache. However, we recommend W3 Total Cache.
The W3 Total Cache plugin automatically caches all posts and pages generated by WordPress, without any need for user configuration. It can also combine and compress JavaScript, CSS and HTML files to minimize HTTP requests from the web browser.
The plugin also provides a caching API that can be controlled from within other plugins’ options screens.
The main advantage of this plugin, as opposed to a shared hosting environment, is the ability to control how long each piece of cached data is kept alive for. This means you can choose exactly when your site refreshes itself from the cache and when it requests fresh content from the server.
W3 Total Cache is a very fast caching engine for WordPress that will make your site super fast. It creates static html files from dynamic WordPress content and is very easy to configure.
How do I Cache a WordPress site?
There are two ways in which you can cache the data of a WordPress site. The first is through the use of plugins and the second is through caching engines.
A plugin can be installed to your site in order to act as an intermediary between your web host and your visitors. This will allow for faster loading times by reducing browser requests, minimizing traffic usage, and ensuring that only necessary files are transferred when updating content.
A caching engine is usually configured at the server level where it will help reduce traffic usage by caching content before transferring it to the user. This is basically how a CDN works. Some WordPress users actually use both methods for optimal results.
However, you should also know that sometimes CDN’s and Plugins conflict and may have an adverse affect on your WordPress site’s performance as well.
So always be aware of that fact whenever considering using both methods simultaneously.
NOTE: Before doing anything with your WordPress Cache or WordPress Cache Folder, ALWAYS have a BACKUP of your WEBSITE.
How do I make WordPress Cache faster?
There are a few things you can do to speed up your WordPress Cache. You can install plugins that act as an intermediary between your web hosting company and the user.
This helps reduce load time by reducing browser requests, minimizing traffic usage, and ensuring only needed files are transferred when updating content.
Your hosting company can also handle caching through the use of proxy servers, which would greatly reduce overall site load time.
The easiest method is to make WordPress Cache faster by using a plugin like W3 Total Cache (free and premium versions), which allows you to set caching parameters for individual elements on your pages, saving users with connections as slow as dial-up speeds up to four seconds off their load time.
There are several caching plugins available for WordPress, but most of them require you install and activate them on every site within your network, which is where W3 Total Cache really shines.
You can also use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) capabilities to configure it for your entire network of sites, and even schedule the CDN through a web interface.
Another thing you can do to improve your WordPress Cache is install PageSpeed for Google Chrome, an extension that helps you see what’s slowing down your pages. It’ll analyze your website and offer up possible optimizations, so you can easily identify areas where you could speed up your site.
PageSpeed will help reduce the time it takes to load webpages on mobile devices, which is becoming more important as more people are browsing the internet on their phones.
If you’re not sure how well your site complies with various Internet standards or how to optimize it for better performance, PageSpeed will have everything you need right at your fingertips.
Managing your WordPress Cache Folder, summary.
There are many ways to improve your WordPress Cache, and the simplest way is through plugins. However, if you want a more robust solution that can be configured for all of your sites in one place, W3 Total Cache provides an excellent option.
PageSpeed for Google Chrome will help analyze what’s slowing down your pages so you know where to focus optimization efforts. It also has everything you need right at your fingertips with regards to Internet standards compliance and performance optimizations.
Be sure not to overlook these caching methods when optimizing and managing your WordPress site!
